Moonlight Ride

Sean and I headed with my brother and sister-in-law to Sundance's moonlight ride the other night. It starts at 9pm and you get to ride the chair lift up and back while checking out the scenery under the light of the full moon. We went last year also, and it has turned into something I really look forward to. The four of us rode the chair up together and had a great time cracking jokes and laughing at couples passing the other direction who were crammed on one side of the chair (making the chair look like it was going to tip over). One couple thought it was a good idea to have the girl sitting on the guy's lap without using the safety bar-- geniuses. The mountain looked really cool in the moonlight, and we even saw deer! It was a chilly night, and made me want to go skiing :) Maybe skiing will help me lose the extra pounds after our son is born-- I'll have to hit up the siblings for some babysitting action!

Pumpkin Cream Cheese Muffins

I was looking through some cooking blogs the other day and I came across this recipe for pumpkin cream cheese muffins. I've already admitted I am a little pumpkin obsessed this time of year, so when I saw the recipe I knew I had to try it. And oh my, I think I have found a new vice in life. These are SO GOOD. Sean says they are the best muffins he's ever had, and I believe him because he's wolfing them down as fast as I am. I've tried limiting my intake to two of these per day, because let's face it, muffins are really just cupcakes masked with a different name to make it ok for you to eat them for breakfast. Anyway, if you're a fan of pumpkin anything, do yourself a favor and make these! I followed the recipe exactly, except I omitted the ground cloves. Why? Because both my mom and sister claim they are pretty strong and I didn't feel like shelling out $8 for them!

Pumpkin Cream Cheese Muffins

Yield: 24 muffins
Ingredients:
For the muffins:
3 cups flour
1 tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. nutmeg
1 tsp. ground cloves
1 tbsp. and 1 tsp. pumpkin pie spice
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. baking soda
4 eggs
1 ¼ cups vegetable oil
2 cups sugar
2 cups pumpkin puree

For the filling:
8 oz. cream cheese, softened
1 cup powdered sugar

For the streusel topping:
½ cup sugar
¼ cup and 1 tsp. flour
4 tbsp. butter, cubed
1 ½ tsp. cinnamon

Directions:
To prepare the filling, combine the cream cheese and powdered sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer and whip until smooth. Form into a log on plastic wrap or foil, making sure that the diameter is small enough to fit into the well of a muffin pan. Wrap the log up tightly and freeze until slightly hardened, 1-2 hours.

To make the muffins, combine the flour, spices, salt and baking soda in a medium bowl. Mix well and set aside. In the bowl of an electric mixer, combine the eggs, vegetable oil, sugar and pumpkin puree. Mix until well combined. Add in the dry ingredients and mix on low speed until just combined.

To make the streusel topping, combine all ingredients in a small bowl. Mix together with a pastry blender or two forks until crumbly.

Preheat the oven to 350°. Line two muffin pans with paper liners. To assemble the muffins, fill each muffin well halfway with batter. Remove the cream cheese log from the freezer and slice into 24 equal slices. Place a slice in each muffin well. Divide the remaining muffin batter evenly among the muffin cups, on top of the cream cheese. Sprinkle the streusel topping over the top of the batter. Bake for 20-25 minutes. Let cool completely before serving.

Tagged

My friend Lauren tagged me!

A- Attached or single: Happily attached!

B- Best Friend: ooooohhhh hard to say (except for the obvious: Sean) My best friend since 4th grade who I tell everything is Andrea, but I have a handful of lovely ladies I'd consider best/very close friends!
C-Cake or Pie: both, but if I have to choose one, cake (preferably chocolate cake with chocolate frosting!)
D-Day: Saturday—no work and always something fun going on
E- Essential Item: lip gloss
F- Favorite Color: pink, light blue, bright green
G-Gummi Bears or Worms: Both! I'm a big fan of gummi anything
H-Home town: Idaho Falls
I- Indulgences: Cadbury Mini Eggs at Easter, Oreos
J- January or July?: January-- our family will have a new addition!
K-Kids: One on the way!
L-Life is incomplete without: family, laughter, church, good friends
M- Marriage Date: April 24, 2004
N- Number of Siblings: Three. An older sister and brother and a younger brother
O- Oranges or Apples: Both. I hate Red Delicious apples though. The skin is bitter and they are always mushy.
P- Phobias or Fears: Something happening to Sean
Q- Quote: Love to one, friendship to many, goodwill to all.
R- Reason To Smile: Got to hang out with some of my nieces last night
S- Season: Fall
T- Tag: Taryn, Beth, Courtney E., Cecily, Gina
U- Unknown fact about me: When I was little my life's ambition was to be an ice cream scooper at Baskin Robbins
V- Vegetarian or Oppressor of Animal: I love meat and I am not ashamed!
W- Worst Habit: Sean says it's leaving egg shells in the egg carton
X-Rays or Ultrasounds: Ultrasounds. Never had an X-ray!
Y-Your favorite food: I love a good steak, pasta, etc.
Z: Zodiac Sign: Aquarius

Alpine Loop

I couldn't be happier about fall finally showing up here in Utah. The temperature is starting to drop and there is crispness in the air that I love this time of year. It is by far my favorite season. Fall represents the beginning of holidays, yummy food, better clothes (I pretty much hate summer clothes at this point), beautiful foliage, etc.

We painted the nursery this weekend and needing to get a break from the fumes, Sean and I decided to drive the Alpine Loop while listening to conference. My sister told me traditionally the fall colors are at their peak during conference weekend, so we thought we'd see what the canyon had to offer. Luckily we took the camera, because it was a GORGEOUS drive.

The colors were amazing and when the sun came through the clouds the trees almost looked like they were glowing! We were both in awe at how beautiful it was. We feel so lucky to be living so close to the mountains. How anyone can deny there is a God who created this earth is baffling to me. Hooray for fall!

Weekly Funny - Taco Town!!!

Jenny and I were watching SNL commercial parodies and we saw this and both thought it was hilarious. My favorite part is the end when the guys are yelling Taco Town. Pure genius.

It's alive!

For the past few weeks this is what our evening has consisted of:

Before we left for Philadelphia, our Mazda started making a really crazy noise when you went faster than about 15 mph. It was embarrassingly loud and lucky me got to drive it to work for the two weeks I was still in Utah and Sean was in Pennsylvania. I took it to a mechanic to see if he could diagnose the problem. Well, that nice man told us he was "certain" it was a bearing on the clutch that needed to be replaced. I stuck it out with the noisy car and decided Sean could deal with it (since it is his other true love) when we got home. Thinking we're being proactive, Sean orders a new clutch and it arrives on our doorstep the day after we get back to Utah. We had the clutch replaced. The noise didn't go away… in fact it was worse.

We took the car to another mechanic for another opinion. This one says he's "sure" it's the transmission and proceeds to tell us for a mere $1200 he will replace it. Um, no thanks. Instead, we made a memorable trip to a pick-and-pull yard out in the boonies west of Salt Lake and picked up a used transmission for $250. Note: I thought it might be a fun little adventure to go to the pick-and-pull yard—WRONG. We stood in a greasy "reception area" for 45 minutes and listened to employees tell dirty jokes in Spanish. I told Sean I would rather saw off my own arm then go back.

So we got the transmission replaced with the used one we bought. We're all stoked to go pick it up and have two cars again. Yeah, would have been cool if the transmission was the actual problem! The mechanic scratched his head and says, "It's a mystery. We just don't know what's wrong." Thanks buddy—really helpful information. Probably good we didn't PAY YOU THE $1200 FOR A NEW TRANSMISSION THEN!

At this point I was ready to blow up the stupid car and tried to convince Sean to buy himself a truck. I knew getting rid of it would be hard for Sean since this car has been his little project (turbo, suspension, exhaust, etc.), but I didn't want to keep paying for people's guesses of what might be wrong. Miraculously, Sean found a guy in Ogden (we'll call him the 'blessed one') who had a lot of knowledge and experience with Miatas. After driving the car for about five seconds he told Sean the problem was the differential (don't ask me what it is because I don't know). He offered to sell us one at a much lower price than anything we could find online, and knowing my hesitation about paying for more car parts we don't really need, he even said he'd buy the part back if it didn't fix the problem. When we picked it up, he taught Sean how to replace it himself and told him to call with any questions or problems. Now THAT is an awesome mechanic!

So like I said, we've been down in the garage for the past few weeks. I set up a beach chair and read a book (I told him he can't be under the car by himself for obvious reasons) and Sean wrenched away. Luckily, with the help of some friends (Sam, Rob) and my brother, the car is finally put back together… and… and... wait for it... the NOISE IS GONE! Can I get a Hallelujah people? The Miata lives on!

5 months

Here's the latest picture of my tummy as requested (this is for you Taryn). We took this picture on Saturday when I was technically 5 months 1 week, but close enough I say! There is more of a bump forming now, which is very exciting. I'm still wearing regular clothes, but there have been a few things I've gone to put on and taken right off after seeing myself in the mirror! We're going to try to take a picture each month so I'll try to post them as we go.

I've been asked a lot if we have any names picked out yet. So far we both love the name Jackson-- it's the name we already had picked out for a boy more than two years ago (you know, back when we thought I'd be pregnant in a month or two-- hah!). We're not 100% set on it, but it is the front runner. If anyone has heard any good boy names or has any suggestions (one you won't kill me if I end up using) let me know. Let me just say now that I will veto any names that are unisex!

Remember how I won that virtual baby shower a few weeks ago? Since this post is baby themed, I thought I would post a picture of all of the stuff I have been sent so far:

I know it's kind of hard to tell what everything is, but you get the idea! The cards in the front are gift cards-- one for personalized onesies and one to go towards announcements. I actually got a basket of baby clothes and a blanket in the mail today that didn't make it into this picture (mostly because I was too lazy to take another one). I can't tell you how fun it has been receiving all of this stuff!

Our next goal? Get going on the nursery. I think I have a pretty good idea of what I want to do sorted out in my head... we'll see if it actually turns out the way I am envisioning! I'll save those details for another post-- maybe after we've actually gotten started!